


gaiety

by armethaumaturgy



Category: Elsword (Video Game)
Genre: Character Study, Fluff, Gen, M/M, Shoulder riding, and general witty banter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-11
Updated: 2018-02-11
Packaged: 2019-03-16 21:28:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,111
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13644795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/armethaumaturgy/pseuds/armethaumaturgy
Summary: Para seems to be a child now, but that's okay. Herrscher knows how it feels.





	gaiety

**Author's Note:**

> *beatboxing* i love these boys so much give me some fluff not angst thank you

There’s a hint of surprise on Herrscher’s usually stoic face as he walks into the living room and finds a kid sitting on the couch, tiny hands occupied with some Nasod trinket.

The surprise is exchanged with a dull sort of curiosity when the kid looks up, big brilliant amethyst eyes dominating the round face. One of them is swimming in darkness and that’s all the clue he needs to sort who this is.

“Why are you so small?” Herrscher asks, cocking his head to the side a little.

Add looks flustered, brows creasing and shoulders squaring. He tries to sink further into the cushions, to make himself look even smaller. It doesn’t quite work under Herrscher’s watchful gaze.

“Well, um…” Even his voice is a little higher now, not that it’d ever been all that deep in the first place. “I’ve managed to break down my body at a molecular level, and when I put myself back I could basically do whatever, but this felt… good.”

Herrscher nods minisculely. He has no idea what half of those words meant, but he can understand how a certain body feels more right than another. His had been given to him by the goddess, as a means to be able to finish his mission, and had been unraveling lately. And he’d been feeling more comfortable letting it shift and move as it does, but he knows Immortal doesn’t appreciate seeing emptiness beneath his clothes often, so he’d been watching himself near the redhead.

“But you’re not a kid in the head,” he asks, though it doesn’t sound a question.

Para shakes his head. He might feel more comfortable in a body similar to the one he’d had during the better times, but his brain is still his and he’s nowhere near as stupid or gullible as he’d been ten years ago.

“Don’t you dare pity me,” Para growls, brows furrowed. Somehow, it doesn’t look half as threatening as Para intends it to, probably thanks to the baby fat on his cheeks now.

Herrscher’s lips curl up into a crooked smile. His visible eye blinks slowly and threads of his being sway in the nonexistent wind. “Wouldn’t dream of it. It’s okay to make yourself how you feel best.”

Slowly, Para seems to relax, slumping into the backrest of the couch and offering Herrscher a smile back. It makes Herrscher feel like he’d said something right; it’s a good feeling, makes the void within his chest feel a little warmer.

“I didn’t think this would be… okay, here, you know?” Para says, almost offhandedly as he goes back to what he’d been playing with before. Herrscher can see now that it’s a battery, and Paradox is trying to figure out a way to supercharge it for extra energy before it starts depleting. Not that he knows anything about machinery.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, it’s not very… normal,” Para says, frowning as he tries finding correct words to describe it, “to try and be a child when you’re not.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t know.”

Herrscher seats himself next to Para, lets the smaller (small) man leans onto him, makes sure to fill the void of his right arm. Para nuzzles into the broken strands on the surface softly. Tiny arms come winding around Herrscher’s midriff and Para basically glues himself to the other’s side.

“I think it’s fine,” Herrscher tells him finally. His other hand, the one that Para isn’t leaning on, comes up to his head, dismembered so he can pet the soft strands of Para’s hair better. “Even that demon had done something similar.”

“It wasn’t Lu’s choice, though,” Para counters, softly. It’s half-muffled against Herrscher’s shoulder, but Herrscher has known Para for long enough to recognize the sad undertones in his voice.

He shrugs. “Bad comparison then. It’s really fine, though.”

Para giggles; it sounds light and airy, so unlike all the usual, maddening chuckles and laughs usually leaving those lips. “You’re awful with words as usual.”

“Never stopped me before,” Herrscher mutters back. His fingers slide through Para’s hair, scratching at his scalp. The boy leans into the touch, humming contently.

“Thanks, Herrsch,” Para says, pulling away enough to lean up and press his lips against Herrscher’s solid cheek, leaving a fluttery kiss on the cold not-skin.

Herrscher shakes his head, “I didn’t do anything.”

They sit together in silence for an unidentifiable about of time, just enjoying each other’s company while Para fiddles with a screwdriver and the battery. Herrscher’s tendrils find themselves wounding around Para’s petite form. It’s unconscious, but Para doesn’t complain.

“It would be okay to baby you a little, though, right?” he asks, pulling Para’s attention to himself. The boy had ended up practically sprawled on Herrscher’s lap, wrapped up in dark tendrils and with the celestial’s chin resting on his head.

“Baby me? Don’t insin— Uwah!”

Before Para could finish his protest, Herrscher has him held up and placed upon his shoulders. Para’s fingers dig into Herrscher’s hair for support and he ends up curled over Herrscher’s whole head in his fear of falling.

“What are you  _doing_!” he screeches. Herrscher’s hands hold his ankles steady and he stands up.

Combined, Para almost bumps his head against the ceiling. “I’ve seen Mr Butler do this with the demon, a long time ago,” Herrscher tells him, as if that’s explanation enough, and, well, to him it is.

He carries Para out of the living room, careful of the door (after Para yells at him to duck under it). In a matter of minutes, Para is comfortable and unwinds himself from his death clutch on Herrscher’s head, even using strands of his hair to steer him where he wants to go.

“So? Is this alright?” Herrscher asks as they round yet another corner of the house and Para is laughing, twisting and turning Herrscher like a toy.

“Maybe… This is kinda fun,” he confesses, like he’s telling Herrscher some big secret. “But if you want to be like Ciel, you better learn how to bake good cookies.”

“What is this, an ultimatum? I don’t want to be like Mr Butler.”

“So you say, but you still want to do what he did!”

“That’s it, down you go,” Herrscher says suddenly, letting go of Para’s legs and knocking him backwards. Para catches himself in a portal before he could hit the ground and pops up before Herrscher with a stuck out tongue. He really resembles a kid when he resorts to those antics, Herrscher thinks.

“I’ll tell Twi on you,” Para threatens, but both of them know he won’t.

There’s no reason to tell on anyone.


End file.
